Chocolate Cream Pie

I'm not much of a baker.  And I'm not a huge dessert fan.  Don't get me wrong; I like dessert.  I just don't love dessert.  But for the sake of my husband, and others whom I love dearly, I pushed aside my aversion and created a chocolate cream pie.

The kids decided it was the opportune time to exercise their varying degrees of culinary expertise.  My, I'm feeling so linguistic today.

I gave them each a small piece of dough and rather expected it to disappear within a few seconds.  But, alas, they chose to make their own pies.  I wasn't really paying too much attention because I was busy trying to roll out my crust and transfer it to the pie dish.  I succeeded.  I'll refrain from showing you a picture, but suffice to say, I would like everyone to know that my patchworking skill are not limited to cloth.  There really should be some type of award for "crust quilting".  My crust was a sensation with its flakiness, if not in the usual sort of way.

Out of the corner of my ear, I heard Brandon climbing up into the pantry.

"Brandon, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm getting a jelly lid.  It's for my pie," he replied.

After a minute or two, he handed me his pie and asked if I would bake it.

"Well, I guess it's aluminum, so that should be fine."

"Yes, yes, yes!" he said and danced a little jig around the kitchen.

"I want one," said Corrine.  "I want to bake my pie."

So, I baked these three little beauties along with my one big beauty.

As the kids stood by the oven and admired their creations, Brandon asked Corrine, "Aren't you so glad that I had that idea?  Do you want to say 'Thank you, Brandon!  That was a good idea'?"

He's so modest.

Corrine replied, "Y-E-S!  Thank Y-O-U, B-R-A-N-D-O-N!  Look B-R-A-N-D-O-N!  Yours is in the middle.  C-O-R-R-I-N-E's is on the left and C-L-A-I-R-E's is on the right."

(There really ought be be a name for that.  You know the, "I'm F-I-V-E. Y-E-S, I C-A-N spell stage.")

"Ok, now that you're done with making your pie, what should you do?" I asked the kids.

"Clean up," they chorused. (We're really trying to work on that around here.  It gets so out-of-control so very, very fast.)

A couple of minutes later I heard a little voice singing, "Flour feet, flour feet, flour feet!"

I turned around from my station at the sink where I was cleaning up my own mess and saw this.

Bless the little creatures. They decided that brushing all the flour off the table into the ground constituted "cleaning up".  Bless them, bless them.

"Uh, go get a rag and clean that up." I said.

"W-E C-A-N!" said Corrine.

And they did.

Kind of.

Yes, books.  Brilliant.  The dough doesn't stick to them.  Duh!  Now why didn't I think of that?

Oh, and I ate more pie than Allan.  So much for not being a dessert person.


Never Fail Pie Crust (thank you Nana Gail)
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. shortening
2 Tbsp. cold water

Combine dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening.  Add cold water.  Roll out on floured surface (books are fine).  Bake at 425° until golden.  


Chocolate Cream Pie Filling (thank you Mom or whoever you got this from)
1 c. white sugar
6 Tbsp. cocoa
1/3 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 c. milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan except for butter and vanilla.  Heat, stirring continuously until mixture thickens.  Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla.  Place in cooled pie shell.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled.  Top with whipped cream and serve.